Outages of Internet and local area network resources (e.g., websites or email services) are inevitable occurrences. Resource outages may be the planned or unplanned result of maintenance or failure of the host device or the software. The Domain Name System (DNS) provides limited handling of resource outages. When a resource is unavailable, users may simply receive a generic error message via the user agent (e.g., the web browser or email application) or, in some cases, the user agent may be redirected to a search page intended to help the user locate the unavailable network resource.
Most internet service providers have DNS servers providing internet protocol (IP) address lookup for use by their customers. However, customers of one internet service provider that are roaming on another internet service provider's network may utilize the DNS servers of the internet service provider that customer is using to access the Internet. For example, a customer accessing resources associated with their home internet service provider from work will typically be using the DNS servers associated with their work internet service provider. For example, roaming users may be utilizing the DNS servers of the internet service provider of whom the user is a customer. Further, some users may have systems using statically, rather than dynamically, configured DNS servers. For example, a customer might choose to use an alternative DNS server provider (e.g., DNS servers provided by an anti-virus/security vendor).
The level of information provided to the consumer also varies based on the location of the resource experiencing the outage. For resources on the internet service provider's network, the internet service provider may have greater ability to control how an unavailable network resource is handled. If the resource experiencing the outage is outside of the internet service provider's network, the internet provider has no control over how an unavailable network resource is handled. Delays in propagating DNS record changes to the multitude of DNS servers make customizing DNS redirection for a specific resource unsuitable or unworkable to handle short-term outages. While standard port numbers of a resource are associated with the DNS record type (e.g., A and MX records), the DNS records do not support custom port numbers, which limits the ability to provide redirection for nonstandard resources. As a result, what the user sees in response to a resource outage can vary.
Customer service related to resource outages is another concern. The current ability to determine the impact of a resource outage and mitigate the inconvenience to users is limited, at best, even when DNS redirection is available. If it becomes widely publicized compensation is being offered for a resource outage, customers that were not affected may seek to claim compensation. At the same time, customers that were actually affected may not be aware that compensation is being offered or may not want to deal with the perceived hassle of obtaining the compensation. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.